Most of the topics covered on this site deal with Ethical Hacking topics, but a solid graps of general security is a must. This board covers those more general credentials from CompTIA, ISC2, SANS, etc.

sh4d0wmanPP wrote:Well they both cover a different field so it depends on what work you do or want to do. Besides that I would suggest to choose for a different organization as eccouncil is not highly regarded.

Instead of CHFI you could do an Encase cert.Good alternatives for LPT would be: eCPPT or OSCP

Thanks for your advice and I do agree with you

What if I'm getting a free pass to do one of them? Then what would you recommend?There's no point in wasting the opportunity know.

If it's free and you have to choose then I'd stick with ECSA/LPT. Seems a bit more advanced than CHFI, that looks pretty basic... It might cover some of the pentesting that you can skip in the other mentioned certs and gives you some background.

Furthermore I agree with above poster, a lack of jobs. For example the country where I live right now does not have any computercrime laws. Forensics would be useless here but pentesting is something that could take off in the near future.

If you work for a CERT/CIRT I would recommend the CHFI though as it would give you at least basic knowledge of obtaining and handing evidence.

Well, whatever you choose please write a review on this site. I'd like to read it.

sh4d0wmanPP wrote:If it's free and you have to choose then I'd stick with ECSA/LPT. Seems a bit more advanced than CHFI, that looks pretty basic... It might cover some of the pentesting that you can skip in the other mentioned certs and gives you some background.

Furthermore I agree with above poster, a lack of jobs. For example the country where I live right now does not have any computercrime laws. Forensics would be useless here but pentesting is something that could take off in the near future.

If you work for a CERT/CIRT I would recommend the CHFI though as it would give you at least basic knowledge of obtaining and handing evidence.

Well, whatever you choose please write a review on this site. I'd like to read it.

Thank you for the valuable explanation. I thought it's just for me that CHFI looks pretty basic. I'd like to have the forensic knowledge in addition to the pentesting knowledge but in this situation it seems like choosing ECSA/LPT over CHFI is worthy as I'm not involved in forensic stuff in my day to day chores.

Some people say it's better to do both CEH and CHFI before ECSA/LPT. I'm not sure to how much extent is this statement valid. Any ideas?

As already said, it really depends on your preferences and in which field you are working or want to get into. I did those certifications mainly for a couple of customers, as they are sometimes required.

ECSA is a single exam (with its own fees). After you have obtained both CEH and ECSA, you can apply for LPT, where you have to pay another fee (500 USD for the first two years; after that, 250 USD for each year).

E: If it's worth or not depends on your customers I guess. If it was just for myself, I probably wouldn't have bothered with them at all.

Last edited by UNIX on Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

My daily tasks are network and datacenter administration, mainly systems. Why I'm interested in selecting one is that I can attend one of the above trainings and get the exam voucher for free at Hacker Halted this year. Why waste that chance?

I'd be continuing my current chores for another 1-2 years before I move into something else, say security. In the long run I'm kinda thinking of migrating towards the security side. Haven't decided whether it's gonna be be foresics or pentesting.